Bethlehem native voted into the College Football Hall of Fame

May 07, 2013

Steve Meilinger, who was born in Bethlehem and played at Liberty High School for John Butler from 1945 to 1948, has been voted into the National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame.

Meilinger will be one of 12 first-team All-American players and two legendary coaches to form the 2013 NFF FBS Subdivision induction class. They will be inducted at the 56th NFF Annual Awards Dinner on December 10, 2013, at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. They will be honored guests at the National Hall of Fame Salute at the Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on January 2, 2014 and officially enshrined in the summer of 2014.

Meilinger, a 1949 Liberty grad, first attended Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia. He then played at the University of Kentucky for the legendary Paul "Bear" Bryant and was a NEA All-American at three different positions -- end, quarterback and halfback -- in three different seasons.

As a senior, he was a consensus All-American.

He was drafted by the Washington Redskins as a first-round pick in 1954, but went into the military and didn't return to Washington until 1956. He played for the Redskins for two seasons and then was traded to Green Bay and played for the Packers and finished his career in Pittsburgh. In six seasons, he had 60 receptions for 863 yards and eight touchdowns.